Flashing red lights and clanging bells

A warning is designed to give us caution - we are to proceed very slowly, if at all.  When we come across the flashing railroad lights, does the conductor of the train expect to see us stop, or barrel on through?  He expects us the heed the warning lights, slow our car, and await the trains passing.  When do those lights begin to flash?  Is it right when the train is about to cross our path?  Nope, they flash early enough for us to avoid the train's impact!  Warnings help us avoid impact with things which have the capacity of doing irreparable harm in our lives.  The Book of Jeremiah is filled with all kinds of warnings.  Warnings to not pursue “satisfaction” for the sake of satisfaction because it really doesn’t lead to the outcomes we desired.  Warnings about rejecting God for anything else because whenever we give anything (or anyone else) the place in our lives he deserves, we end up serving that thing (or person).  Warnings of sin's effect such as being deprived of the blessings we have in life.  Whenever we see a warning in scripture, it is put there on purpose.  It is designed to "stop" us before we move into a place of irreparable harm in our lives.

“Go stand at the crossroads and look around. Ask for directions to the old road, the tried-and-true road. Then take it.  Discover the right route for your souls."  (Jeremiah 6:16 MSG)

Some of the warnings in scripture are really in the form of instruction - to do something specific because our previous actions have placed us in a position of being in a "head-on collision" with the things which will do harm in our lives.  In this sixth chapter of Jeremiah, the prophet is in conversation with God.  As the chapter unfolds, we find God warning the people of Judah to run for their lives - terror is upon them from the forces of the North.  They are about to be taken into captivity by the Babylonian forces.  Here's why God is so concerned:  "My people are broken—shattered!—and they put on Band-Aids, Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’  But things are not ‘just fine’!"  There has been a superficial treatment of sin in their lives - Band-aids of sorts.  This is a warning to take sin seriously - to not cover over it with anything which will hide its seriousness!

When my kids were younger, my son was playing with an sharp box-cutter while I was at work.  He cut his hand quite deeply.  My first clue to the injury was a blood trail into the house as I came home that afternoon.  No children in sight, but blood on the bathroom counter (although they attempted to wipe it up), blood on the carport floor, and a plethora of empty Band-aid wrappers in the trash!  When I finally found them at the neighbor's, not one word was spoken about the injury!  In fact, he did a clever job of hiding it for about another hour.  Hands were in pockets, covered with books and schoolwork, and the occasional one behind the back.  I allowed the charade to continue because they were both still breathing!  When I finally encountered my son about his seeming "lack of use" of his hand, he copped to the plea!  He had been using the knife I had warned him to avoid, cutting himself deeply between two fingers in the fleshy part of his hand.  It was deep!  It needed closure, because the fissure would not heal unless it was brought back together.  Sin is kind of like that cut in my son's hand - it is a fissure of sorts, not able to heal until there is openness about the wound, tender care to avoid its infecting power, and the application of the ointment of the Word to speed its healing.  The plea of God - stop dealing with sin as though it were a superficial thing!  It goes deeper than you might first realize and it needs special care - not just a Band-aid!

God then tells Judah to "look for the old ways".  Why?  They had left the path and he wanted them to know the pathway they needed to return to was never that far out of sight!  We probably only need a little direction to get us back on track!  This is the good news - the bad news is when we don't heed the warnings we are off the path in the first place!  The longer we stay on the wrong path, the farther we will get from recognizing the old path any longer!  The cry of God's heart is for us to recognize when we are going adrift.  Why do we heed the flashing red lights?  Isn't it because we see them?  Blind people don't drive cars - sighted people do!  But just in case you don't see them very well, there are clanging bells, as well.  Even the blind can hear the bells!  So, warnings are really multi-faceted.  They carry a component of seeing and hearing. 

Eyes to see, ears to hear - sound familiar?  Eyes to see the path we have left.  Ears to hear the call of God's voice beckoning us back onto course.  The warnings of God are a call - call's need to be heeded or they are nothing more than noise on the wind.  There is a call to meet with him (returning brings us face to face again).  There is a call to move with him (being on the right path puts us in the flow of what  he is doing).  There is also the call to do warfare with him (because staying the course means we will encounter some forces we might not want to deal with).  As we consider the warnings God gives in our lives, the main thing is to "pay attention" - for no warning is ever intended to be ignored!  It is there for our safety.  Just sayin!

What's under the hood?

¹⁴ A healthy spirit conquers adversity,
   but what can you do when the spirit is crushed?

(Proverbs 18:14)

A healthy spirit has conquering power!  There is a soundness and vigor that is evident when the spirit is in a place of "health".  Our writer asks a tough question:  What can you do when the spirit is crushed?  That's a tough one - even though your first answer might be to turn to Jesus to have him heal it!  That is kind of like a "pat answer" for all of our life's problems.  Yet, we often turn to him for health without even realizing what it was that brought us to the point of being crushed!

We rarely get into a place where we have "crushed" spirits because we were blind-sided by some event, course of discussion, or infirmity of mind.  The emotional investment we make into our daily walk with Christ is a pretty good indicator of how "healthy" our spirit is.  When we are emotionally "invested", we might find ourselves looking forward to times in the Word, moments to sneak away to share a few words with our Savior, or just some downtime to take in the things of beauty he has provided in our lives.

I know we are not supposed to be emotionally driven - but hear me out on this one.  Our emotions are "indicators" much like those on the dashboard of our automobiles.  We get "warning lights" emotionally much like we get them when a tire is low, the oil pressure is askew, or the radiator is about to blow a gasket!  When we learn to pay attention to those emotional "warning lights", we are more likely to get our spiritual condition back to a place of "health" quicker.

Think of the emotion of fear - it causes us to have rapid heart rate, increased respiratory rate, and we might even feel like the pit of our stomach is churning a little.  Even if it is a mild form of fear, like apprehension, there is an emotional-physical connection that occurs.  What we "feel" is translated into certain responses of our body.  The same is true spiritually - what we "feel" is often impacting our spiritual health.

For example, think of the emotion of anxiety or fear again, but from the impact this has on our spirit.  Why is it that we are feeling such anxiety in the first place?  It is usually because of a "trust" issue that we have embraced in our emotions.  We don't "feel" like God is trustworthy, maybe because we have experienced some set-back or loss.  We don't "feel" like he has been faithful, perhaps because somebody we loved hasn't kept up their "end of the bargain" in relationship - so we think God allowed this to happen.

When we form "emotional attachments" around false impressions or beliefs, we are allowing them to impact our spirit.  It compromises the integrity of our health spiritually much like one microscopic virus invades our body.  When false beliefs are allowed to take hold, just like the virus that multiplies willy-nilly in our bodies, it will soon impact the "defense system" of a healthy spirit.

The antidote to a crushed spirit begins with a healthy assessment of our emotional condition.  We look for the warning signs, address the issues that are "under the hood" and then work out a plan for maintaining the "health" of our spirit.  

Hurting God's Heart

^16-19 Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.

(Proverbs 6:16-19)

Solomon outlines for us six things God hates and adds just one more (kind of like the cherry on top) that God has some pretty serious feelings about (loathing).  Hate carries the idea of intense, passionate dislike of something.  Loathing carries a sense of disgust and gives one the idea that God is repulsed by the type of action he sees.

1. Haughty eyes (arrogant eyes) - pride is a battle we must fight every day.  Any time we have a higher opinion of ourselves than those around us, we are probably dealing with an issue of pride.  Sometimes we need a "pulse check" from another we trust to see how we are doing in this area.  The call is to lay down one's own agenda for the good of the whole - to not become focused on what you believe is "due" you because of your position, contribution, etc.  God pretty much declares that pride becomes a barrier that keeps us from realizing some of the best stuff he has.
2. Lying tongues - words are more powerful than we'd first like to give them credit.  Our words make or break a situation - they tear down, or build up.  Plain and simple.  More defilement enters into our lives through the destructiveness of our words than we'd probably like to admit.  Hurtful words drive wedges, create animosity, and destroy character.  God simply cannot abide that kind of behavior in his family - because it destroys the family's integrity.
3. Hands that murder the innocent - our hands are tools that can either reflect the grace of God's touch, or the hurtfulness of selfish, prideful self-will.  Much is conveyed in a touch, but nothing rises to the level of touching that which is innocent and bringing death by that touch.  In our society today, we could go so far as to say this is not just the "taking of a life", but the stripping away of the dignity and respect of a life by the use of any type of inappropriate touch (bringing death emotionally).  Innocence is lost in just one touch.
4. Hearts that plot evil - our emotions are either positive or negative (there really is no "emotional middle-ground").  Envy, lust, pride, fear, anger, rage - these describe emotions that stem from our heart.  Each of these emotions are a reflection of something within.  They may be the response to an actual circumstance, or the imaginations of our mind.  Regardless of their "source", the action is the same - repaying or responding out of our emotion.  God looks at the outcome of our thoughts - not so much that we simply had the thought.  He works on changing the thought patterns, of course, but his focus is on the outcome (what we do with the thought we have).  
5. Feet that race to do wrong - it is one thing to meditate on what is wrong, or on what will yield an outcome of sinful behavior, but it is another thing to embrace it and follow hard after it.  Whenever we find ourselves "racing" toward what we know is wrong, we are in a place of dishonoring our God.
6. A false witness - more than someone who just tells a lie - this is the testimony of one against another.  This also is our testimony of our lives - living out the message of the gospel, or the message of a self-directed life.  We make a choice - reveal God's grace in how we live out our lives, or reveal our selfishness and pride.  To say that we are Christian and choose to live selfish, pride-filled lives is to have a false witness.
7. A person who sows discord among brothers (family) - the cherry on the top!  God's method of accomplishing his purposes is within "family" - anything that destroys family is an abomination to God (something he abhors).  God desires us to be in relationship - to be "builders" of relationship, not in the "demolition" business.  As we embrace patterns of sinful behavior, we are working to destroy the integrity of the family.

These are all pretty "stinky" stuff.  The list starts out pretty "tame" - deal with your attitude of "self-importance" and ends with a strong warning about not destroying family.  All that comes in between builds upon the other.  Rarely do we see one of these traits in isolation of another.  Most of the time, they go hand in hand.  Learning what it is that hurts God's heart is paramount if we want to draw close to him.